OK, enough of silence. Others have been braver and more honest. I’ve held off my direct criticism of Cummings for years, as I haven’t wanted to revisit the personal anguish he caused me when I was a Tory adviser. And, frankly, because I feared the consequences of speaking up. https://twitter.com/nigelfletcher/status/1264154812540690432

I woke up expecting Cummings to have gone overnight. As the examples of heartbreaking sacrifices made by families during lockdown mount, every minister sent out to defend him is further tarnished, as is the government. This isn’t an SW1 scandal- it’s a personal insult to us all.

Anyone with any experience of political comms can see what a disaster this is, how toxic is the charge of “one rule for us...”.
It required a swift, fulsome apology and, probably, a resignation. Anyone with the best interests of the government at heart would have gone.

Tribalism in politics makes people do strange things, but loyalty to your party shouldn’t override personal integrity. We all know MPs and ministers who have been aghast at Cummings for years. The PM is being poorly served by someone who should never have been appointed.

I think that should probably be my last word on the matter for a while. I’ll go back to tweeting about Doctor Who and making pedantic constitutional points about arcane historical events.